Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (41.2000)

The Toruń panel perfectly represents an aggressive and mischievous aspect
of the devil, his sharp, weird motion, contrasted with the mild air of the
whole scene and the gentleness of Jesus. Apart from Christ and Pilate, the
devil participates in the event on almost eąual footing and is morę real than
the winged sprite hovering by Pilate’s ear in other representation of the same
scene.8 The devil was rarely depicted by Gothic artists in the scene: Christ
before Pilate, however, he appeared in Romanesąue art.9 One may point to
the door panel from St. Michael church in Hildesheim (ill. 4)10 as an example
of such an elaborated solution. Here the devil, a rather large zoomorphic
figurę, approaches Pilate seated on his throne from behind and, leaning over,
whispers in his ear. This devil is comparable with the one in the Toruń panel
- his movement points to his role in the event. The devilish presence in
the Christ before Pilate scene seems to be, at first glance, a sort of usual
addition, related with Pilate himself and personifying “devilish incitements”.
This connection of the devil with a mediaeval ruler is present also in some
representations of judgement belonging to the lives of saints, among others."

In my opinion, however, the devil in the Toruń panel has a morę autonomous
meaning, fuli of deeper theological content, as in the scene of the Temptation
of Christ11 - the point previously not analysed by the researchers of iconography
of the Christ before Pilate scene.1, 13 In the Toruń panel the devil is not Pilate’s
instigator. According to St. Matthew (24:19-20), during the trial of Jesus
Pilate’s wife entered the pretorium and addressed her husband with words:
“Nihil tibi et justo illi. Multa enim passa sum hodie per visum propter eum.”
During the whole Middle Ages14 the exegesis of this verse of the New
Testament read in it a public testimony of the innocence of Christ. Pilate’s
wife based her pronouncement on her dream “from the previous night” in
which she had to “suffer a lot for Christ”. Theologians differed in their

8 For example the panel Christ before Pilate from the Heilbronn retable, ca. 1350, Nuremberg,
Germanisches Museum, cf. P. Strieder, Tafelmalerei in Nurnberg 1350-1550, Kónigstein im
Taunus 1993, p. 14, ill. 6, cat. no. 1.

9 For example Psalter of Bishop Henry of Blois (Winchester Psalter), ca. 1150, London, British
Library, Cotton Nero Ciy fol. 21, cf. C.M. Kauffmann, Romanesąue Manuscripts 1066-1190,
London 1975, pl. 223, cat. no. 78.

10 Cf. H. Busch, Germania Romanica. Die hohe Kunst der romanischen Epoche in mittleren
Europa, Vienna and Munich 1963, fig. 57.

11 For example a miniaturę of Troparium from the first half of the llth century (Hereford?)
depicting a scene from the life of St. Lawrence, cf. M. Rickert, Painting in Britain. The Middle
Ages, Melbourne-London-Baltimore 1954, pl. 49a.

12 A miniaturę of the St. Albans Psalter (Albani Psalter) in Hildesheim, Sankt Godehard,
1119-1146, cf. O. Pacht, C. Dodwell, F. Wormald, The St. Albans Psalter (Albani Psalter),
London 1980, fig. 34.

13 Cf. L. Reau, leonographie de Part chretien, vol. II: leonographie de la Bibie. Nouveau Testament,
Paris 1957, pp. 449-450; G. Schiller, Ikonographie der christliche Kunst, Giitersloh 1968,
vol. II, pp. 74-76.

14 E. Fascher, Das Weib des Pilatus, Hałle/Salle 1951. I am indebted to the late Dr. Tadeusz
Dobrzeniecki, Curator of the Gallery of Mediaeval Art, for turning my attention to this highly
interesting and hardly available work.

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